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Fortune 500 Daily & Breaking Business NewsSun, 02 Aug 2015 22:26:59 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/http://1.gravatar.com/blavatar/dab01945b542bffb69b4f700d7a35f8f?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.png » weather - Fortunehttp://fortune.com
Fortunehttps://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/fortune/assets/images/fortunelogo.pnghttp://fortune.com25040El Niño could spark mega inflation across Asiahttp://fortune.com/2015/06/03/el-nino-asia/
http://fortune.com/2015/06/03/el-nino-asia/#commentsWed, 03 Jun 2015 18:34:33 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=1157168]]>You may recall a time in the mid-1990s when American citizens were worried about El Ni?o, the tropical weather pattern that can cause global changes in temperature and rainfall. Now, according to new Citigroup research cited by Bloomberg, the next group to pin concerns to El Ni?o may be bankers.

The report, produced by Citi analysts Johanna Chua and Siddharth Mathur, suggests that the current El Ni?o (the weather anomaly takes places at unpredictable times, sometimes more than five years apart) could have a deleterious effect on economies in countries in and around Asia.

India, Thailand, The Philippines, and others, where agriculture contributes a major percentage of GDP, might see inflation in food prices, since a severe El Ni?o can brings dry spells and cause crop damage. In Indonesia, for example, the agriculture sector makes up more than 50% of overall employment.

In a 5.0.1 update that was recently released for the free app, the new versions adds the following functionality: “Added crowd reporting, because your watch is waterproof, your phone is not. Tell us it’s raining from your wrist.” Basically, when you notice it’s starting to rain, you can tell the app, which then adds that to data from other users for more accurate weather reporting.

In addition, the app boasts that it allows Apple Watch users to get all their weather data “at a glance,” including viewing current conditions both hourly and for the next 10 days.

The news of the app’s update comes after reports showed that Apple Watch third-party apps are expected to get a boost in quality by the fall, as developers will be able to create apps that run natively on the device.

]]>http://fortune.com/2015/05/29/apple-weather-app/feed/0apple-watch-1280x720snyderfortuneThe cost of winter storms: Should we believe economists?http://fortune.com/2015/02/12/the-cost-of-winter-storms-should-we-believe-economists/
http://fortune.com/2015/02/12/the-cost-of-winter-storms-should-we-believe-economists/#commentsThu, 12 Feb 2015 18:59:05 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=987398]]>We hear it every winter: pronouncements that a blizzard cost the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars.

But in an era when so much business can be done over the phone and online, these estimates leave some scratching their heads. Could a simple snowstorm really cost the U.S. upwards of $1 billion, as some economists predicted of January's blizzard that shut down New York City?

The short answer: yes, it can.

But it's not that simple. First of all, the media knows that by pointing out that something "costs" $1 billion, it will get people's attention. After all, if a reader could somehow get ahold of that money, he and his family could avoid working for generations to come. It's a lot of money.

But for the $17 trillion U.S. economy, it's chump change. It's .005% of the country's annual output. On a per-capita basis, it's $3.17. On a conceptual level, it would probably be more honest to write that the next storm could cost you $3.17. (In fact, for the median Joe it would be much less, since income is unevenly distributed). That at least communicates the magnitude of the effect on the economy in a way that the average person can understand. Of course, if news reporters did really put these figures into such context, the public would realize that a story about the economic impact of an average blizzard wouldn’t be worth reading at all.

That said, where do these hundreds of millions of lost dollars actually come from? According to Doug Handler, an economist at IHS Global Economics, one of the biggest hits the economy takes is in the form of lost wages for hourly employees. While salaried office workers get paid even if they can't make it to work and can likely even work from home, hourly employees aren't so fortunate. And it's not as if all these workers can simply make up the money on another day.

The economy also takes a hit from lost sales at places like restaurants or retailers. Some of that consumer spending gets made up at a later date. If you are, for instance, planning to buy a car, a snowstorm will merely delay your purchase. But if you had planned to eat out the night of the storm, it's not certain that you will still buy that meal another time. Another big contributor to lost economic activity is cancelled plane flights. It’s costly to cancel and reschedule flights, and in many cases, some routes will not be rescheduled at all.

There is a certain point at which a snowstorm can go from being a small economic obstacle to something a bit more pernicious. That's what happened in the winter of 2013-2014, when a series of severe snowstorms across America helped the economy shrink by 2.1% in the first quarter of 2014. In that instance, the bad weather was persistent enough to mess with supply chains. Trucks and air freight couldn’t get to their destinations, mucking up inventory management. That led not only to fewer consumer purchases, but also to companies buying less than they otherwise would.

But even in the case of sustained periods of very bad weather like what we saw in the Northeast and Midwest last winter, estimating the economic effects involves a lot of guesswork. Economists know that output fell in the first quarter of last year in a way that isn’t consistent with broader economic conditions, and they also know that snowfall levels were much higher and temperatures were much lower than usual in some of the most productive areas of the country.

Economists also make use of qualitative and quantitative survey data from the Federal Reserve and private groups to connect the dots. But in the end. it’s impossible to know for sure how big a role weather plays in the economy. As Handler says, “it’s more an art than a science.”

]]>http://fortune.com/2015/02/12/the-cost-of-winter-storms-should-we-believe-economists/feed/0A man plows a sidewalk after a snow storm in the Brooklyn borough of New Yorkchristopherrmatthewsweather1_7_25_14New England feels under the weather after record snowfallhttp://fortune.com/2015/02/10/new-england-feels-under-the-weather-after-record-snowfall/
http://fortune.com/2015/02/10/new-england-feels-under-the-weather-after-record-snowfall/#commentsTue, 10 Feb 2015 09:04:39 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=982495]]>This article is published in partnership with Time.com. The original version can be found here.

More than 2 feet of fresh snow piled up in parts of New England on Monday, breaking records set during the Blizzard of 1978 and testing the patience of officials and commuters as forecasters warned of more winter misery later in the week.

The latest onslaught forced the cancellations of hundreds of flights, tested transit systems and tempers and collapsed roofs straining beneath the weight of 5 feet or more of snow in less than two weeks.

Boston and areas south were hardest hit, with the National Weather Service reporting unofficial measurements of 26.5 inches in Weymouth, 26 inches in Sharon and 24.9 inches in Norwell. Forecasters expected more than 20 inches on the ground in Boston before the storm winds down early Tuesday.

"You can't change it. The snow is there," said Helen Ferullo, a social worker in Weymouth. "You can't do anything about it."

Much of Connecticut and parts of upstate New York braced for 6 to 12 inches, and southern Maine was in for about 8 by the time the storm tapers off Tuesday.

___

TRANSIT TROUBLE

Boston-area subways, trolleys and commuter rail trains ground to a halt at 7 p.m. Monday and were scheduled to remain idle on Tuesday, with only limited bus service continuing. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said it needed the break to clear snow and ice from tracks and to assess equipment damaged by the storms.

Boston's transit system, the nation's oldest, has been particularly hard hit this winter. The buildup of snow and ice on trolley tracks combined with aging equipment has stalled trains, delaying and angering commuters. Fifty commuters were rescued Monday from a train that became disabled between stations in Quincy, south of Boston.

A frustrated Baker called that "unacceptable," and commuters complained bitterly of the daily delays.

Amtrak canceled portions of its passenger train service linking upstate New York to New York City because of the storm. Hundreds of flights were canceled at Boston's Logan International Airport, Connecticut's Bradley International Airport and Maine's Portland International Jetport and Bangor International Airport.

Boston set a record for the most snow recorded in a 30-day period, with 61.6 inches by Monday morning, breaking the record of 58.8 inches set in February 1978.

Bangor, Maine, tied its own 30-day snowfall record with 53 inches, which hasn't been seen in such a short period since 1969, the weather service said.

SNOW PLOW DEATH

A man who had just finished work at a supermarket bakery in Medford, Massachusetts, was struck in a parking lot by a private snow plowing truck and died after being taken to a hospital, authorities said.

Police interviewed the driver of the snow plow, but no charges were immediately filed in the death of 60-year-old Cesar Moya.

Police said a former set of "The Finest Hours," a Disney film about a Coast Guard rescue of crewmen aboard an oil tanker wrecked off Cape Cod during a 1952 blizzard, suffered a partial collapse at an old shipyard in Quincy. The movie, starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, is scheduled to open next year.

MORE SNOW, LESS DOUGH

Forecasters said more snow was expected Thursday and again next weekend, and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency warned that potentially record-low temperatures and wind chills are expected later in the week.

The steady run of winter blasts has already sucked up more than 70 percent of New Hampshire's Department of Transportation winter maintenance budget. Rhode Island, too, said Monday's storm will use up what's left of its $14 million budget for snow removal and nearly the entire salt stockpile.

OCEAN DUMPING APPROVED

Massachusetts environmental officials gave cities and towns the green light to dump accumulating snow into open water if necessary.

The Department of Environmental Protection on Monday cited the challenges involved in getting rid of the historic snowfalls. Local communities may seek permission to take emergency steps that allow disposal of snow in the ocean or other bodies of water, which is normally prohibited.

Officials also were using giant melters to liquefy snow.

TRIALS DELAYED

Two high-profile Massachusetts trials have been further delayed by the snow. State court officials said testimony in the murder trial of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez would not resume until Wednesday. Jury selection for the federal trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused in the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, also was called off on Tuesday.

OVERHEARD ON THE STREETS

"They were pretty much walking around like zombies. They've been working for 20 hours straight." -- Carrie Sullivan, describing plow drivers eating at her Weymouth diner.

]]>http://fortune.com/2015/02/10/new-england-feels-under-the-weather-after-record-snowfall/feed/0MBTA Rail Service Halted Amid Another Winter StormgeoffreytsmithMajor airlines cancel thousands of flights due to East Coast blizzardhttp://fortune.com/2015/01/26/major-airlines-cancel-hundreds-of-flights-due-to-east-coast-blizzard/
http://fortune.com/2015/01/26/major-airlines-cancel-hundreds-of-flights-due-to-east-coast-blizzard/#commentsMon, 26 Jan 2015 13:04:03 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=961022]]>Major airlines cancelled thousands of flights scheduled to come into and out of the East Coast of the United States as a potentially historic blizzard is expected to dump as much as three feet of snow and snarl transportation for tens of millions of people.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for New York City and surrounding areas beginning 1 p.m. ET on Monday, and warned of two days of winter storms across the East Coast, from Pennsylvania to Maine.

“This could be the biggest snowstorm in the history of this city,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Flight-tracking website FlightAware.com noted in a social media post Monday morning that around 4,000 flights have been cancelled for Monday and Tuesday. The post also said that almost all New York City flights will be cancelled Tuesday.

American Airlines Group AAL canceled all late afternoon and evening flights scheduled for Monday from the New York area, Philadelphia and Boston, spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said.

The cancellations affect flights of American Airlines, US Airways and all regional partners, Huguely said in an email. The company plans to resume operations “as soon as it is safe to do so,” she said.

As of early Monday afternoon, the company had canceled 626 flights that were scheduled for Monday and 970 scheduled for Tuesday, she said.

Delta Air Lines DAL said on Sunday it planned to cancel 600 flights because of the blizzard warning, while United Airlines UAL said it will cancel all Tuesday flights at airports in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Beginning on Monday night, the carrier will limit operations at Newark, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports in the New York area, a spokeswoman said.

Southwest Airlines LUV said Sunday evening it would cancel more than 130 of 3,410 flights scheduled for Monday due to the storm, an increase from its earlier plan to cancel about 20 flights.

Nearly all of the major U.S. carriers have waived the change fee for customers flying from affected cities during the storm, reported USA Today earlier Monday.

The Greater New York Taxi Association, an organization of taxi operators in New York City, said its members will offer free taxi rides to emergency workers unable to get to work and the elderly who might be stranded by the snow.

]]>http://fortune.com/2015/01/26/major-airlines-cancel-hundreds-of-flights-due-to-east-coast-blizzard/feed/0459613382bgfortuneDear Container Store: It’s not the weather or the retail funk. It’s you.http://fortune.com/2014/07/09/earnings-excuses/
http://fortune.com/2014/07/09/earnings-excuses/#commentsWed, 09 Jul 2014 18:02:49 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=741691]]>After a hard winter gave retailers a convenient excuse for their poor results, retailers have found a new version of “the dog ate my homework”: U.S. consumers who just aren’t in the mood.

Container Store TCS on Tuesday night lowered its fiscal 2015 sales and profit estimates and reported a 0.8% decline in comparable sales, and CEO Kip Tindell shifted the blame for his company’s problems from the snowstorms that slammed the U.S. last winter to un-cooperative shoppers.

“Now we’ve come to realize it’s more than just weather and calendar. Consistent with so many of our fellow retailers, we’re experiencing a retail funk,” Tindell told analysts Tuesday night on a call. (He also claimed that the first quarter contributes “less than 0% of our annual earnings,” a mathematical impossibility.)

His comments echo those this week of Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon, who said that the job market’s recovery is not helping its shoppers yet. (Wal-Mart WMT blamed the winter for poor holiday season sales, though its streak of quarterly sales declines began well before last winter.)

But in the case of Container Store, few seem to be buying his excuse: shares are now down almost 50% from a 52-week high, a big comedown for a company whose IPO shares priced at the top of their estimated range before doubling in their first day of trading in November in one of the hottest stock market debuts of 2013. (Many on Wall Street were also wearing rose-tinted glasses; only two of 10 analysts had a sell rating on the stock yesterday, according to Bloomberg data.)

Wells Fargo said in a note that Container Store’s weak results stood in “stark contrast” to strong results from other high-end home goods retailers like Williams-Sonoma WSM and Restoration Hardware RH, which suggests marketing, assortment, or other company specific issues, according to Fly on the Wall.

And Tiburon Research Group Rob Wilson lambasted the tone of Container Store’s communications, tweeting: “This qualifies as one of the more ridiculous press releases I’ve seen in my career.”

It’s not exactly clear why it took so long for Tindell to reach his epiphany about the tough retail environment: despite admittedly impressive sales growth, Container Store has posted big net losses in each of its last five fiscal years.

This strange excerpt from a letter the folksy Tindell sent to prospective investors (it’s on page 85 of the prospectus) last fall should have been a wake-up call for more scrutiny:

“I would have to say that first and foremost we’re an employee-first, yummy company. ‘What does it mean to be yummy?’ might be your next question. Well, it’s the opposite of yucky.” He then went on to explain why It’s a Wonderful Life is his favorite movie.

Tindell also told investors in that prospectus that the 63-store chain, which has been around since 1978, could grow to 300 locations, a five-fold increase, without fleshing out where such a sudden surge in demand for his storage products would come from.

Looking ahead, Tindell evoked his old favorite excuse--the weather--as something that could finally be a source of solace next holiday season:

“Chances are very, very, very high that we won’t have the worst weather in our 36-year history again this fourth quarter. And it was darn unfortunate to have it right after we went public.”

]]>http://fortune.com/2014/07/09/earnings-excuses/feed/0Retail Icon ThumbnailpwahbaWashout? Hurricane Arthur could actually boost consumer spending this July 4 weekendhttp://fortune.com/2014/07/03/hurricane-arthur-holiday-spending/
http://fortune.com/2014/07/03/hurricane-arthur-holiday-spending/#commentsThu, 03 Jul 2014 15:39:28 +0000http://fortune.com/?p=738361]]>Americans are expected to pump billions of dollars into their holiday celebrations this July 4 weekend, and the prospect of inclement weather brought on by party-crasher Hurricane Arthur could actually boost spending, according to NBCNews.

More than 153 million consumers could spend roughly $6.2 billion on food alone for the various barbecues and holiday parties they have planned this weekend, according to numbers released last week by the National Retail Federation. That total equates to about $68.16 per household lined up for burgers, hot dogs, potato chips and more over the three-day weekend.

As for other forms of entertainment, the NRF says there will be another roughly 132 million people, who aren’t focused solely on chowing down and will likely celebrate by attending either a community event, such as a fireworks display, or by taking in a parade.

But, what if Hurricane Arthur -- recently upgraded from a tropical storm -- forces revelers’ plans to change on Friday, when certain areas on the east coast could receive several inches of rain and winds up to 80 mph?

In that event, consumer spending could actually see a spike, according to NBC News, which notes that people affected by weather could opt for indoor activities, including going to the movies or shopping at the local mall. What’s more, the weather isn’t likely to affect predictions for spending in other areas, as most vacationers have likely already purchased their beach gear and stocked up on food ahead of the holiday weekend.

If you’re reading this in your office, good for you. You didn’t play hooky, you didn’t extend your weekend, you didn’t call in sick. You’re keeping the gears of commerce turning, at least until mid-afternoon. So whether you’re sitting in a cube, or reclining in a beach chair, here are four things you need to know in business today.

1. There’s a new fee on airline tickets.

Traveling by plane this summer? You’ll notice some additional fees on your airline ticket. The Wall Street Journal reports that starting July 21, the September 11 security fee will more than double to $11.20 for non-stop round trip tickets, and will be $5.60 for one-way tickets. The $10 per trip cap has also been dropped, so trips with stops of four hours or more could see fees pile up. Other add-ons, such as airport facility fees, could also go up soon. You’ll still have to take your shoes off, though.

2. Hurricane Arthur could hurt beach business over the holiday.

Those of us on the East Coast are not only preparing for the weekend, we’re also preparing for a potential downpour in the form of Hurricane Arthur, currently making its way up the coast. Of course, this won’t just affect fireworks shows -- businesses at the beach have to deal with it too. A surf shop in South Carolina is already working to reschedule lessons it had planned. The impact isn’t expected to be too bad, though, as at least one hotel told Reuters most of the calls he’s receiving aren’t cancellations, but people making sure they could still come.

3. Thomas the Tank Engine pulls into Japan.

Those of you who were children in the 1980s and 90s likely have fond memories of Thomas the Tank Engine, lovingly narrated by former Beatle Ringo Starr. Well get ready to make a pilgrimage to Japan, because there is now a full-size replica of the anthropomorphic locomotive in the Shizuoka prefecture. Apparently, Thomas the Tank Engine’s time never passed in Japan, where he remains popular on television.

4. World Cup continues this weekend.

Just because the U.S. lost to Belgium on Tuesday doesn’t mean you have to stop watching soccer. This weekend you can watch all four quarterfinal matches from the comfort of your home rather than wasting time in the office! There are two matches Friday and two matches Saturday.